UNICEF Nepal C4D Response Earthquake 2015

This report highlights the key United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) communication for development (C4D) interventions during the response phase of the April and May 2015 earthquakes, which killed nearly 9,000 and severely affected thousands more. It explains how the UNICEF C4D programme worked at the national and local level with key stakeholders to meet the information and communication needs of affected families and communities.

As explained here, the earthquake of April 25 2015 badly damaged most telecommunication networks; services were disrupted. There was an imminent need for channels to be established in order to communicate with the affected communities for rescue, aid, and other health and psycho-social services. Guided by the UNICEF Core Commitments for Children (CCCs) in Emergencies, UNICEF Nepal's C4D programme worked with the Government of Nepal and other development partners to develop a comprehensive strategy for responding to the situation. Based on a rapid assessment of communication needs, key messages / content for dialogue were developed and channels identified to disseminate these in the most affected districts. Care was taken to ensure that it was not just a one-way dissemination of messages but that there were appropriate mechanisms to ensure that community feedback and voices were heard in order to make the communication and response efforts need based and also ensure accountability to affected populations.

Soon after the earthquake, UNICEF brought together several development partners including United Nations (UN) agencies, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), NGOs, civil society organisations (CSOs), media organisations, and community radio operators under the Communicating with Affected Communities (CWC) working group to ensure a convergent and coherent C4D response to the earthquake. After the first few weeks of the earthquake, the CWC was further sub-divided into 4 sub-groups:

1. Messages and Materials - Through this sub-group, a common set of messages were developed so that all partners communicated the same messages to communities and that there was no confusion among communities over these messages. The group would also periodically update and refresh messages based on evolving needs. Materials that were developed by partners were uploaded onto a dropbox site, which was accessible to all members of the CWC. Members could download, view, and print these materials as per their needs, helping in avoiding duplication. Through this mechanism, based on requests, UNICEF provided printed materials to various partners.
2. Community Mobilisation - This sub-group was responsible for coordinating direct, community-based outreach work. This helped in ensuring that partners could spread themselves and cover areas in an organised manner and avoid duplication.
3. Radio - This group comprised representatives of community radio operators and media-based organisations. The group managed work related to assessing the status of damaged community radio stations and preparing a roadmap for their rehabilitation. They also worked with various community radio stations to ensure uniform and correct transmission of key messages.
4. Monitoring and Evaluation - Understanding the criticality of evidence-based and data-driven work, this sub-group was responsible for carrying out communication assessments, monitoring, and evaluation.

UNICEF partnered with the national broadcaster - Radio Nepal - to air radio programmes for earthquake-affected populations. The programme Bhandai - Sundai or Talking - Listening was designed to help ensure accountability to affected populations by providing them with a channel to give feedback to humanitarian responders on their concerns and needs, as well as to offer on–air psychosocial counselling to help people get over their trauma. The programme was launched across 4 daily time slots:

1. The morning show (30 minutes duration) focused on providing situation updates and information on relief and response efforts of the government and development partners. It also provided an opportunity for people to call in and share their needs and concerns with concerned government authorities who would periodically participate in the show.
2. The afternoon show (55 minutes duration) was meant to provide psychosocial support to women. Calls on the show were answered by trained counsellors.
3. Not forgetting that children were also deeply impacted by the earthquake, a show (20 minutes duration) was especially organised for children in the early hours of the evening. During the show, they could call and share their feelings with a trained adult, who would give them practical tips on how to deal with the situation. They were encouraged to sing songs, recite poems, share jokes, or simply talk to help them get a few lighter moments and get over the trauma. Occasionally, popular celebrities and comedians would also be invited on the show to increase the entertainment quotient of the show.
4. The show in the evening (45 minutes duration) was open to all audiences who wanted to talk to a trained counsellor to discuss the emotional issues that they were going through and find options to deal with their condition.

As part of the Back to School Campaign, "mock classes" were organised on the show to help teachers and administrators understand the facilities and services that needed to be provided in schools, and how they should carry out classes in the first few days after reopening of the school so that children could overcome their fears and slowly settle down in a child friendly environment.

According to UNICEF, the programmes were popular, and "the phones never stopped ringing!" Over a period of 3 months, the programme had broadcast over 13,300 minutes of content and answered over 1,200 phone calls (32% of the callers were female, and 39% of the callers were children). "The programme was successfully able to reach children, women and families who were otherwise outside the immediate reach of direct counselling services due to the devastating impact the earthquake had had on the physical infrastructure of the country. Radio Nepal being a credible government body, also greatly helped ensure accountability to affected populations by directly calling concerned government authorities on getting grievances from affected communities in order to address them."

Nepal has an extensive network of around 270 community radio stations spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. within a few days of the earthquake, many of those that were damaged resumed broadcast from temporary and makeshift shelters. (In collaboration with the Asia Pacific regional office of AMARC and the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (ACORAB), UNICEF supported an assessment of the extent of damage and developed and implemented a short- and long-term rehabilitation plan. For instance, UNICEF supported some of the stations with tents and essential broadcasting equipment.) UNICEF in partnership with these community radio stations started to intensively broadcast critical information related to staying safe, relief efforts, and messages around health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and child protection. Over 100,000 minutes of messages were broadcast. Rapid assessment findings indicated that around 87% people could recollect key messages that were aired on the radio.

Based on a common set of messages that were agreed upon with partners, UNICEF produced a range of communication materials to support group and interpersonal communication (IPC) efforts by community-level implementing partners. These included posters, flipcharts, leaflets, booklets, and comic books providing information on topics such as hygiene, sanitation, water purification, pregnancy care, postnatal care, diarrhoea, other childhood illnesses, trafficking, stress management, menstrual hygiene, and the importance of education. Nineteen types of materials were developed, and around 1.8 million copies were printed and distributed among most-affected communities.

UNICEF also organised community mobilisation through youth volunteers and entertainment-education activities to ensure that affected populations had access to critical and life-saving information. UNICEF partnered with the youth organisation Yuwalaya, with its strong, district-based networks to reach out directly to communities in most affected and media-dark areas with critical, life-saving messages. Youth volunteers went door to door, community to community, and also to camp sites to talk to people, providing them with information to keep them safe from disease outbreaks and other effects of the earthquake such as trafficking of women and children, which dramatically increased after the earthquake. Furthermore, they demonstrated the use of essential rehabilitation supplies and distributed communication materials. Building on the already popular brand name Bhandai Sundai, UNICEF came up with a travelling entertainment–education show titled Bhandai Sundai Gaon Gaon Ma or Talking – Listening in villages. UNICEF teamed up with popular Nepali celebrities – comedians, magicians, singers, and other performing artists - to reach out to communities in remote areas with entertainment coupled with messaging on critical issues. "The program received tremendous response from the people, drawing in huge crowds wherever it was organised. People were elated to see that celebrities who they had only seen on television or heard on radio so far, had actually come into their communities, homes and lives to share their sorrows."

Throughout all this work, UNICEF encountered various challenges and learned lessons to be applied in advance of the next disaster. For example, the CWC was activated after the emergency; having such a group activated as a preparedness measure would have helped to push the preparedness / prepositioning agenda. In conclusion: "UNICEF will continue in its efforts to reach people with critical, lifesaving information and more importantly ensure accountability to affected populations by providing platforms through which children, women, youth and affected populations as a whole can communicate with duty bearers on their needs and concerns. UNICEF will work on building resilience and capacities of communities with a focus on adolescents and youth, to help them better prepare and respond to future emergencies."